Comfort

I want to invite you to open your bibles with me to Philippians chapter 1. We’re in a series called, “Pursuing Carrots.” The endless chase for more. And We’re examining, things in our life that we chase that do not bring us closer to God. Carrots are the things in life that we chase and just when we think we’re gong to get it, its just out of our reach again, and we just keep pursuing these carrots that brings us no satisfaction.

Life is full of endless lures. Everyday we are being lured in by something with he notion that if we get it, if we can possess what it is that we are chasing, our life will be different. And most often, we think that if we get this one thing, my life will be better… and sometimes, sometimes, we do get it. But it never stops there, whatever it is that were chasing, often times when we get it, we want more.

And so, it becomes this trap.. or endless pursuit of trying to get more. Today, I want to explore a carrot called, “the carrot of comfort.” And let’s begin by reading our Scripture in Philippians chapter 1, and if you would, find verse 12 with me. I want you to know, brothers,1 that what has happened to me has really xserved to advance the gospel, 13 so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard2 and yto all the rest that zmy imprisonment is for Christ.

14 And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold ato speak the word3 without fear. 15 bSome indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. 16 The latter do it out of love, cknowing that I am put here for dthe defense of the gospel. 17 The former proclaim Christ eout of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment.

18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice. Yes, and I will rejoice, 19 for I know that fthrough your prayers and gthe help of hthe Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, 20 as it is my eager expectation and hope ithat I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full jcourage now as always Christ kwill be honored in my body, lwhether by life or by death.

21 For to me mto live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 If I am to live in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me. Yet which I shall choose I cannot tell. 23 nI am hard pressed between the two. My desire is oto depart and pbe with Christ, for that is far better. 24 But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.

25 qConvinced of this, rI know that I will remain and continue with you all, for your sprogress and tjoy in the faith, 26 so that in me uyou may have ample cause to glory in Christ Jesus, because of my coming to you again. 27 Only vlet your manner of life be wworthy4 of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you xthat you are standing firm in one spirit, with yone mind zstriving side by side for the faith of the gospel, 28 and not frightened in anything by your opponents.

This is aa clear sign to them of their destruction, but bof your salvation, and that from God. 29 For cit has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also bsuffer for his sake, 30 engaged in the same dconflict that eyou saw I had and now hear that I still have. Let me begin with this thought.. “We live in a culture that is deeply committed to finding, pursuing and yearning for comfort.” That’s what our culture says.

Get better things. Pursue the latest and newest possession. Build bigger homes. Find and work for the next vacation. Save and prepare for retirement, maximize safety but minimize the risk. Your life, and my life is constantly bombarded by this dream, and desire to pursue personal comfort in this life. So here is my first question. Does living and pursuing a Christ filled life lead to our ultimate comfort in this life?

That’s what I’m asking. Does being a Christian lead to an easy life? Paul, here, is telling the Philippians, that for every true christian, Jesus is your life. He’s your life. I wrote in my journal this week, I found a flaw in my own personal evangelism of the gospel. How many times have I said to someone, you’ve got to believe in Jesus. And I’ve received an answer, I do believe in Jesus.

It happened to me this week. I was speaking and sharing with someone the gospel, and asking this person about their faith in Christ, and they said they had a faith in a higher power. And I said, who’ve got to believe in Jesus. And they said, I do believe in him. And that was it.. I was satisfied. I walked away from that conversation believing that I had been successful in my witness..

but then I began to think of something…. There is a difference between believing, and surrendering. Believing is the first step. Acknowledging that Jesus is real. That’s one thing. It's not enough to just believe; your belief needs to take the next step of faithful surrender. Placing faith in Christ, isn’t just believing, but surrendering. For me, it began by surrendering my mind. Who is the way.. who is the truth, who is life…

Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. But then, what I thought of Christ began to permeate into the depths of my heart. Now, theres affection. My faith has gone from just believing in Christ, to living for Christ. To me thats seeing Christ as life. To go from believing to surrendering. Is to recognize and to receivcen life. That’s exactly what Paul is saying here. He says it in verse 21, “For me to live is Christ.” Think of all the things we find in our Scripture that supports this.

In verse 13 he says his imprisonment is for whom? It’s for Christ. In verses 15-18 he starts talking about people who are preaching Christ with different motives. But when we get to verse 18, Paul goes, what I focus on is the fact that Christ is being proclaimed. And I think thats so amazing. That although there can be people proclaiming a gospel with different motives, Paul sees through their motives and he finds Christ within it.

And he’s says, Christ is being proclaimed. That makes me happy. That makes me joyful. I rejoice in this because my hope is not to be ashamed about anything, but that Christ be honored in my life. In my body whether it be life or death. And he comes to this conclusion I think it’s in verse 21… where he goes, For me, TO LIVE IS CHRIST and to die is gain.

He’s Christ centered. In the suffering of his life. He’s Christ centered. In the Good times and the bad times. He's Christ centered. And this is so important for us to understand… This life of faith that we see in Pauls life to be able to see through the veil of just religious activity is a radically different Christianity than the one that is so often practiced in our culture—even in churches like ours.

Because comfort is such a highly treasured commodity of faith, it becomes hard for anyone to grasp the truth that faith might be uncomfortable at times. Faith often times requires us to see past the cloud of confusion and misrepresentation and see Christ above it all. Think of the dangers we have in this life when we pursue a carrot of comfort. What could prevent me from centering my life on Christ?

Perhaps… A good family life, good social status, nice house, nice car, nice job, nice vacations. And a good Retirment fund. All of these things are comforts that we pursue. One can have biblical knowledge and belief in Jesus. A person can show up to church on Sundays, as long as its convenient for them and they experience some sort of religious activities and maybe some hairs raise on their neck, or they get some melodious emotional experience during Worhsip, and partake in sacraments and worship and service.

All the good things of our faith. And yet still not have their life centered on Christ. Their mind can know, but there heart has yet to recognize the goodness of living a life of faith. Because what happens when suffering comes or one loses the comfort of any of those things mentioned earlier.. How would you respond if that was your story? You see, when we look at this Scripture of Pauls life…

and recognize that he has centered his life on Christ. What we notice is this… Suffering is the same gift as his faith. It’s like a coin. Faith and suffering are two sides of the same coin that has the same value. Whether a quarter lands on heads or tales it’s still a quarter. Whether we believe or suffer it’s still a part of our life of faith. Let me show you..

Look with me in verse 29. For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him,… Did you hear that first part, to believe in Him. I get that. I understand that. It’s a gift to believe in Christ. Think of what Paul tells the Ephesians. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

(Ephesians 2:8-9 ESV) Faith isn’t on our own works. Its a gift. To live for Christ, is a gift from God the Father. Paul, tells young Timothy, to fan this gift into flames. but Paul doesn’t just stop there.. he flips the coin. And he goes, but also to suffer for him. Like…What kind of gift is that? Have you ever received a gift that you didn’t want? Something you didn’t ask for?

Like a gift that was more exciting before opening it. You get the gift bag, you’re excited, you know theres a surprise in this bag, or this box.. you don’t know what is hidden behind the wrapping paper.. and you’re exited the wait of anticipation is giving you anxiety… and then you open it and its and its…. underwear. Or something you really didn’t want. And often, you’re kind of disheartened at first..

And then you act like its good. Oh gee.. thanks.. Imagine for a moment in your faith where you explain to someone the gospel. And you make an invitation and you go, believe in Christ. He loves you. He wants nothing but the best for you. He pursues you. He’s always there for you. And and saves you from all of your sin. if you come by faith right now… he comes into your heart and he lives in you..

He gives you the comforter to help you and guide you.. how does that sound? Will you put your faith in him.. Of course I would. I want the joy and peace and love that he offers. I want that gift. Even the gift of the church… I hear all the time, unity, and family and togetherness.. I need that.. I want that. But we have an issue. What happens when things go wrong?

What happens to belief when loss happens? When hardships come? What happens when the good things are taken away and left with nothing but pain? When we lose family. Or friends. Or possessions. We see our health going south and we’re praying for healing or a miracle? I’ll never forget when I loss my job in Colorado and I walked into our front door with a box of my office stuff and my wife breaking down and falling to the floor and crying.

Or the time when my step fathered passed and I made the trip back home to lay on the couch to hear listen my mother’s cries of deep anguish in her bedroom as she cried throughout the night. Often.. hurt happens and loss occurs and its not your fault. You didn’t do anything to cause it.. if anything you actually tried to prevent it. So heres a question for you and me..

Do you love Christ so much that to lose everything in order to be with Him would be gain for you? Wouldn’t that be a different way to live? Wouldn’t that be so totally different than what the world says how to live by faith? Because here is what happens… when hardships come, we have a tenancy to be impatient and run from our troubles. Seeking comfort tends to tell us to go the other way.

What if I said, theres a side to our faith where our troubles are where we find the strength that we pray for? In Colossians 1:11 Paul tells us this. He says “God will strengthen you with his own great power so that you will not give up when troubles come, but you will be patient.” How many of you would agree that you would struggle when it comes to taking risk?

I know I do.. I know as I get older the less risk I take. Because theres too much at stake. My life. My wife’s life and our kids life. Our friends. The relationships we have now. The comfort of our home and way of life. All of these things could change if I step out across this boundary of the unknown and make myself uncomfortable. But the truth is, God doesn’t call us to live the safest life possible’s, he calls us too push our boundaries.

He calls you and me, everyday to examine our boundaries that we have made to keep ourselves safe and he calls us to push through them with the strength that he gives to us through our faith. My favorite verse about this is Jesus in the garden. Where there was this boundary of should I go or not to the cross. Its really a boundary of comfort vs faith in his father and the calling of the Fathers will.

A boundary of will I pursue what I want vs what my father has called for me to do. And while in the garden he goes, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; No one chooses death. No one chooses to be in pain. But what if crossing that boundary means stepping into the opportunity to glorifying Christ even more? Or what if crossing that boundary means being closer to Christ?

Jesus is looking at this boundary and he’s got a choice. He’s not being forced to the cross. He’s looking at this boundary and going.. what is my Fathers will?. And I dunno… but I want to believe this is a moment where Paul gets his words, 21 For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. The boundary that he is facing could lead to death.. but in the end, even in death, he’s pursuing God’s will.

He’s following Christ. He’s not defining what boundaries he chooses to live. He’s; choosing to face comfort and going, Yet, Not my will be done, but yours. Faith requires all of us to examine our boundaries. I want to end our time together by giving you three truths. First, Faith pushes against the boundary of fear by putting faith into action. Do you know the story of when Peter walks on water?

When Jesus walks on water and Peter sees him. Peter yells from the boat and he tests the other side of the boundary. He yells out, if it is you Lord, tell me to come. The waters were raging around him, they were in this small boat. And I believe in this moment Peter had a conflict of both fear and faith rising up within him, ultimate, faith caused him to step out of the boat and over the boundary of fear.

Now we know the story that he took his eyes off of Jesus and began to sink. But in the tight moment, Jesus grabs him and takes him to safety. Theres a swim test the navy seals perform. And its a test to see how long they can swim without getting air. And so, they know the average time for a person to swim without air..m there’s swimmers and divers in the water to help in cases of emergencies.

But these recruits for the navy seals are asked to swim and theres a certain distance they need to get to. If they pop the heads out of the water for air, they fail. This navy seal I spoke with said they look for the guys willing to go beyond their boundary of comfort and as they begin to reach the final wall to complete the task, usually many of them begin to drown and its there where they divers grab them and pull them up out of the water.

This navy seal said, they want to see how dedicated these men are. Are they truly willing to give up their life their team? He says, usually its fear of death that makes these recruits fail the test. So, One main boundary faith always comes up against is fear and we have to push through fear in order to follow Jesus. Secondly, Any faith step you take will be challenged. That’s a promise.

Faith is always challenged. When Peter steps out, it says in verse 30, “But when he saw the strength of the wind, he was afraid.” Sometimes we can see through the boundary that were being called to cross and we can see every obstacle in our way. The key for us as it was for Peter, is to not allow outside challenges to diminish our faith or bring into doubt that God is able to do what He is calling us to do.

We need to remember that Faith begins with a promise. Think of the promise in the great commission that Jesus says, I will be with you. In every step we take towards Jesus, we are simply walking towards His fulfillment of a promise and a faith that says, God is with me. Lastly, doubts that come when we’re called to cross the boundaries of comfort must give way to worship.

Ultimately, Peter failed. But when Christ came, and the waves were calmed, and the wind died down, it says, they worshipped Him. We have to be at awe in the one who says, I will be withy you, and the one that calms the storms. If we are to follow Jesus and navigate the ups and downs of the faith journey, we have to become worshippers. Otherwise when it comes to hard seasons, we will have the tendency to step into the unknown in our own power.

Faith doesn’t grow under our own power. Its not just something we practice and get better at. Faith grows through the moments when we are put to the test and we cling to our Savior in worship and complete abandonment to all else. This morning I’m asking you to think about what boundaries have you placed in your life that prevents you from stepping out by faith? What challenges your peace?

What boundaries are in your way that prevents you from trusting in the prince of peace? *